Demodex

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So Sorrrrrry!

Let me begin by it can be beat! In the spring of 2002 we received a full blooded mini weiner dog and named him Rowdy. One week after we brought him home he got a big bump on the top of his head. It looked like a zit. Within a week he was covered with them, no hair at all (NONE) and was lathargic with a very high fever. The morning i got to the vet the told me it was mange right off. They said it was sarcoptic. (and the worst case she had ever seen. This dog had been rescued from a byb. She said it would be a long expensive road. Oh well, we cleaned out our bank account. One week later, my lillte boy was almost dead. I called and they said to give it time. I called the next day and told them we couldnt wait anymore. I didnt even want to pick him up by this point. Then she did a skin scraping (which should have been done the first time) and realized that he had both demodex and sarcoptic. She said she had never seen anything like it. The cortozone had actually aggrivated it because it wasnt diagnosed correctly the first time. The treatment changed and the dipps started. One every 2 weeks to kill the life cycle. within 3 months he was cured. Within 3 months it returned and we started all over again. Anti-biotics, dipps, food supplements, you name it. we did it. It seemed to be a constant battle for 2 years. The vet diagnosed him with an immune disorder that probably came from the bad breeding invironment (which was bad). Then my family went through a financial fiasco due to a custody battle for my step-son and we had no money left. I didnt even have the money to get Micah's (my boxer's) set of shots. I called a rescue in new york for Dahtson's because the vet wanted to put him to sleep for 2 years and now i was thinking of acctually doing it!!! But they took and are now using alternative medicine. The food has to be changed. Supplements given, They say all the dipps the vet gave him damaged his skin. There is an anti-fungle cream they used. His hair is growing back now and he is doing great. Do I feel guilty? VERY! But if my boxers has gotten this it would have been devistating. It was torture keeping all of them apart for that long. The point is, the vets are not always right! Some know of other ways to treat. If I had had any money left I would have gone for another round somewhere else. I did not know any better at the time. I had a very bad experience with this and now I know better. Tons of dogs get over this all the time. I wish I had come to this web site then. Now i miss my lillte buddy. I'm thankful that he is getting better now but I wish it could have been me that had helped him. This was hard on my daughter also. One piece of important advise I can give you, if you are going to treat with Mitaban dipps, give him Aveeno oatmeal baths in between. It helps with the itch and the pain. But deffinatley change to a high end all natural food! I didnt know the importance of this. It makes all the difference in the world!



audrey, micah, shayna and family
 

buhlue

Boxer Pal
Thank you so much for your post! I have been devastated by this, especially today seeing her scratch herself raw. She has generalized mange, so as far as I can tell, the Mitaban dip yesterday was the right way to go.

I went to one vet who said to leave it alone, that it was puppy pyoderma. That was the military vet on base. Unfortunately, I took her advice and waited until Maddie needed her third set of puppy shots to bring her in. It didn't seem to be getting any worse, but I also didn't notice her bald patches. I thought she was losing her puppy hair and that it was no big deal, especially since she wasn't scratching.

But I'm not sure about the Aveeno oatmeal bath? The vet said not to bathe her in between dips because it will wash away the medicine? Is that true?

I bought her some Missing Link and will start giving that to her soon. I am also going to switch to either Canidae or Wellness and have been supplementing her kibble with chicken until I can get it. Unfortunately, I have to order it since we live in the middle of nowhere, so it'll be a week or so before I can get something good in her.

Again, thanks for your post. It helped a lot!
 
About aveeno

In my case the dips were two weeks apart. After about the 7th or 8th day you cant smell the medicine on them anymore. Dont bath them. Just poor it over his skin and pat dry. It's feels so good to them especially when they are scratching so much they are bleeding. My vet also told me not to bathe him after the dip and when i told her i had waited over a week and gave him the oatmeal because i thought he just couldnt stand it anymore she said ok. It wasnt unitl about the 2nd week into the third dip that i started to see a major change the first go around. He would have pulled through had he been given a fair start. But did not have that even before he was born. The parents did not either. In this case, his immune system just could not fight it off like a dog with a healthy immune system could. Good luck with you baby and keep me updated. I'd like to know that he gets all better!
 

buhlue

Boxer Pal
Thanks for the info. Maddie is scheduled to have her second dip on February 5th, 10 days after her first one. Maybe I will try the Aveeno on the 8th day.

I'll definitely keep you updated!
 

litlleli

Boxer Pal
I hope Penny is doing much better these days. My boxer boy Rocco, had demodex starting at 4 months. He was treated w/ dips and once he was getting better his vet (at the time - not anymore thank God) recommended that he get neutered. Well low and behold, I find out that demodex can also be triggered by stress. And boy was he under some serious stress. So the demodex came back and he had to be treated again while trying to recuperate from being neutered. Once he finally got better from his episodes, it has never come back. He will be 3 in March. I have changed his food - thinking that it might be better for him to be on holistic foods and have just spoiled him rotten (just to make things less stressful for him as possible of course) :) Some boxer owners are very lucky not to have reoccurring episodes of this little devil and I hope I will be one of them. Since then he has gone through some stressful situations - even though maybe some of them I couldn't prevent - like a little abnoxious little fur sister that constantaly harasses him for attention or maybe the time when he was diagnosed w/ a type of bone disease; either way demodex hasn't given us any trouble the past couple years...so I think you are pretty much safe. You'll become an expert. You'll know what to look out for (thinning hair, bald spots) before it becomes a problem and you will know how to treat it, if it ever appears again. Rocco has convinced me that as boxers get older they only get stronger and healthier. :)

Leslie, Rocco (fawn boxer boy) and Sammy Sosa (Boxer mix)
 

sarbox

Boxer Pal
Thanks litlleli,
Your story is what I hope for Penny. It's funny you mentioned the neutering. When Penny was wrongly diagnosed the first time, put on steroids and then was spayed.
UGH, stress = compomised immune system. buhlue, your pup will look worse before he gets better. When you think he's going to really loose ALL his hair and become a "naked mole rat" he'll all of a sudden turn the corner and get better. Follow directions on all your meds. If your dog is on Antibiotics take every last one. Penny also had a secondary skin infection and they kept her on them for about 45 days. She also had to wear an e-collar for a month to keep her from digging her face raw. That was a miracle piece of plastic, use one if your dog is digging or chewing itself. They can be there own worst enemy, it's up to us to give them the best chance to beat this bug.
 

babydex

Boxer Booster
Diagnosed also..

We took Dexter to the Dr. today and he also has Demodex mites...there are 2. The Dr. actually brought the microscope in with him to show us what they were and what they looked like. I was pretty impressed by this! :D

He has localized and is being treated with Goodwinol Ointment, they also gave us a Benzoyl peroxide and sulfur shampoo to apply to affected areas during a bath weekly if I choose of with his regular bath every 2 weeks.

I'm fairly unexperienced with this sort of thing so I was very happy to find a thread on it. However NOT experienced by getting screwed over by mis-direction on a pet. Making a long story short we had a mini-dacshund that died of Parvo because the vet wanted to charge us $$$$ :eek: and at the time we couldn't afford it, there was no way. He was put down and it was the single most heart-breaking thing we'd ever had to do as a family, he was such a sweet and smart baby.

Needless to say I actually interviewed vets before Dexter arrived. Most of them looked at me as though I was NUTS because I wanted to talk to them about a dog I didn't have yet. Especially at the mention of Parvo I was told that the dog was doomed. Until I found my current vet....just in walking in I knew it was different. The DVM I spoke with that day was flabergassed about the amount the Vet clinic wanted to charge for Parvo treatment. She said she could have treated him for around $500 and has an 85% success rate. Needless to say after an hour of talkin I knew this was the place and she agreed to special check up visits to monitor for Parvo.

Sorry this was so long....but I have learned that the first answer is not always the right one and there is hope for everything!!!
 
Re: human rash from demodex?

Originally posted by buhlue
I know this is kind of gross, but my husband and I both have rashes all over our bodies since about 2 days ago. My puppy was just diagnosed today with Demodex. She sleeps in our bed with us. Could these two be related?

I feel so nasty and dirty with this rash! I am going to go to the dermatologist ASAP, but wanted to have some background info for him. I don't want to sound totally ignorant by saying, "My dog has these mites, maybe I do too."

Any ideas?


When I went through this with Rowdy I also broke into a rash and I DID go to the doctor and tell her about my dog and she laughed and said NO WAY! I felt like a dumb*** but I had to find out. How was i to know. SHe did not know what it was from and after he started to get better it went away. Funny huh? Maybe it was stress from being worried about my dog, or maybe it was given to me by dog and my immune system fought it off. It seems strange that your ahving the same problem. :confused:
 

buhlue

Boxer Pal
I find that really odd. You are the 5th person I've read about that this has happened to!

My husband's rash is starting to go away on its own, mostly because I scratch mine and he doesn't. I take Benadryl all day and that doesn't help me since I still want to scratch at it. Makes me feel sorry for what little Maddie is going through! :) Poor girl scratches at her eyes constantly. I can't wait to get her an e-collar.
 
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